Coga19000

For over a decade, the proud nation of the Kerbals had achieved a goal thought impossible by past generations; escaping the warm embrace of their home planet's life-breathing atmoshpere, and reaching towards the stars, into space. They had filled the empty skies with unmanned satellites which changed the technological evolution of Kerbalkind forever, they had conducted experiments that brought modern science upside down; they had even sent Kerbals into orbital stations, living for weeks with nothing by themselves and their cramped confines to accompany them to their journey through nothing. And now, it was time to aim higher. The Kerbals were willing to develop larger technologies, that would enable them to leave the embrace of Kerbin altogether and reach new, alien bodies; to bravely traverse the vast vacuum, and , like a well-aimed arrow, to reach in a clean rajectory towards their targets. Even President John F. Kerman offered a huge goverment funding on the project, enabling the progam to fullfill its ambitious plans. This was the age of Uncharted Territories. This was the beginning of the Artemis Program. The Artemis Program: An Alternate-Universe Take on the Apollo Applications Program This thread is a short fan fiction, based on my progress to GregroxMun's amazing Apollo Applications Program challenge. It is mostly a report of my progress, but I'll aim to make it a pleasant experience. Each chapter will be posted individually, as I complete each step. Now, there's no more to say; I hope you enjoy! ******************************************************************************* Chapter 1: Safety first? Who makes the rules around here? ********* "There she is. Beautiful, isn't she?" "You bet she is. The official beginning." "It looks so much like the real one." "Yeah, who would quess it's just a shell made of boiler plate steel." "But still, she will get the job done. Well, I hope." "Don't worry, everything works like clockwork up to this point. And it's not like this is a super important phase or anything, right?" "I wish you were right. But many people have questioned our capacity up to this point. They think we are progressing too far too fast, and they will cling to the smallest mishap to prove their point, especially after the Cronus I disaster. We cannot afford to start off in the wrong foot." "Relax, kerbal. I led this phase of the program myself, and your eggheads have run the calculations, right? It will work alright." "I hope you're right." The two Kerbals, Bob and Bill Kerman, were standing on the launchpad, next to the boilerplate of the Artemis Command Capsule. The sizable capsule, with a tall Launch Escape System atached to the top, shed its shadow on the two childhood friends, waiting patiently for the Launch Pad Abort System. This test was one of utmost importance, as it would prove the safety of the Artemis progam. The Launch Escape System would separate the capsule from the Decoupler scheduled to separate the capsule from the rest of the rocket for atmospheric reentry later, and fly it away from the launchpad, the same way it will have to fly it away from an exploding rocket. Then, the capsule's parachutes would open for the capsule to land safely on the ground next to the launchpad. "Sorry I'm late, guys. Is that the capsule?" Both turned over to see a heavily breathing figure, most probably having sprinted the way there. That figure was a living symbol; the legendary Jebadiah Kerman, founder and CEO of the Jebadiah Kerman's Junkyard and Rocket Parts Company, current head of the Kerbal AeroSpace Administration, and the first Kerbal in space. "Hello, Jeb. And that is not really a capsule, more like a dummy of it. But it's the closest we have up to this point." "Good enough for me. But I have a question regarding its design." "Yes, Jeb? What is it?" said Bob raising his eyebrow; Despite his brilliant mind, Jeb rarely showed any interest in the technical details. He generally felt more at home with devising innovative concepts with Wernher, and well, recklessly riding controlled explosions to the skies. "Where is the rest of the rocket?" Bill and Bob sighed in union. "It is not a launch test, Jeb" said Bill. "We are only supposed to check whether the Launch Escape System is capable of pulling the capsule away from a rocket." "Ohh right, the LPAT. I thought I had deemed this project redundant already." "Yes you did, but we could not just skip that phase. In case you don't remember, your brother had put as a term for the funding that maximum safety shall take priority over everything else, especially early on." "Anyways guys, time to step back into the bunker. The test will take place in three minutes" stepped in Bob. "See? I told you" said Bill happily to Bob. "It was the most perfect sequence we could hope for. No flaws, no difficulties, just clean separation and landing." "I quess you were right. It was truly flawless" replied Bob, much calmer now, and with a newfound enthusiasm in his voice. "Okay guys", he said to the engineers behind him, "go retrieve that boilerplate and prepare it for attachment to Lanky Jill. We're launching A-001 today!" "... that was my call to make, but I'll let you get away with it this time. We're go for launch" said Bill, a tad irritated. "Heyheyheyhey, it was MY call to make, Bill. I'm still in lead of this projec, am I not?" said Jeb, much more irritated. "Yeaaah, like it matters. You were going to order the launch anyways, wee you not? I can see it in your eyes." "Well, duh!" he replied, in a more playful tone. "I came over here to see a real rocket launch, and I ain't leaving this bunker until I see one!" ******************************************************************************* "Everything is prepared, boss. A-001 is safely stationed on the launch pad. Inspection to this point has shown nominal function. Launch angle for this testing was se tto 28 degres to the West, as planned" said an engineer o Bill afer entering the bunker. "Good job, Rendurf. Get the eggheads at Mission Control ready, we're launching in two minutes." Lanky Jill II was a truly simplistic rocket. Descendant of Lanky Jill I, used for LES tests during the Hermes program, it was powered by a twin-nozzle BACC sustainer solid-fuel motor, while six Sepratron boosters were lit for 6 seconds to aid at initial launch. A malfunctional inertial navigation system caused the rocket to start spinning at around 130 m/s velocity, becoming uncontrollable at 315 m/s; this defection was by design, to better replicate a malfunctioning rocket at the transonic range of speeds for the LES test. At 360 m/s, the rocket imploded, causing -hopefully- the capsule to separate, and escape with the LES' solid motors. "*huff*puff* Sorry I'm late, guys" said Valentina Kerman, as she came through the door ready to collapse of fatigue. "Oh thank the Kerm, you delayed the test. I thought you had already is that a Lanky Jill on the freaking Launchpad? I thought A-001 was for Tuesday?" she added, forgetting her fatique in her surprise. "I understand your confusion, Val. The Launch Pad Abort was already done in its scheduled time, but the results were satisfying enough to allow the rescheduling of A-001 for today, speeding up the program on a whole." Valentina raised her eyebrow. "Bob, how many times have I told you you don't need to speak like that all the time? Being able to act proffesional when need arised is nice and all, but we're all friends over here. It makes me feel a bit uncomfortable." "*blushes* I'm sorry, Val. We have participated in so many meetings lately to get the Commitee to approve the project, it has kind of stuck. And you know I have a natural tendency to engage in loqasious dialo- Kerm-damnit, I mean beign verbal sorta comes out naturally to me. Sorry." "It's okay" she replied, semi-successfully trying to prevent a small giggle. "It's not that bad, just somehing worth a small advisal. Okay, now, why did the program change so abruptly? I know our schedules are fluid, but this is a bit too sudden." A casual nod towards the CEO's seat from basically every single personnel in the bunker was more than enough of an answer. "Oh, right, our beloved, responsible boss. Couldn't get through the day without witnessing a ocket launch, am I right, Jeb?" Jeb raised his hands with a smile. "You got me over there, Val. And by the way, you didn't miss anything. The LPAT was nice and all, but it ended too fast. This should prove more interesting." "That I'm sure about. I bet you are suffering internally for not being able to step in for a joyride in that thing." "Yeah, totally. *like you could stop me if I wanted*" "What did you whisper over there, Jeb?" Bob failed to get an answer as Mission Control came in. "Guys, we are ready to launch. T minus 30 seconds." "Good job, Gene, patch the eggheads in. Telemetry?" "Go." "Electronics?" "Go Flight." "Propulsion?" "We are Go Flight." "*they are solids, it's not like they could malfunction* Range Safety?" "We have a Go." "Abort System?" "Go." "Comms? "Some problems with the auxilliary antenna, but nothing mission-stopping. We are Go." "Navigation?" "No Go, but that's how it's supposed to be Flight." "Very nice. All systems are Go. Motor ignition in T minus 13, 12, 11, 10, ..." "There we go, there we go! The whole system operated flawless! I was expecting the aerodynamic stress to be higher, but otherwise it was perfect!" "Whatever, I could have told you tha-I meaaaan, I told you it would work fine." This eyebrow-raising round was een more intense. "Jeb, it's obvious you're hiding something. What have you planned this time?" said Bill, very cautiously, but was also interrupted, this time from a young engineer rushing into the bunker. "Sir, the A-002 rocket..." "What happened to it?" "I's gone!" "WHAAT? Jeb! I know you have something to do! Spill it!" "Yeaaah... you may recall that joyride Val mentioned, the one I was unable to step into? Turns out I was not." "Jeb" said Valentina in an acid voice, "are you telling us you just hopped into a boilerplate capsule..." "I would hop in if it was the boiler itself. And let me tell ya, I rode my first rocket into a much worse piece of crap than this pod." "... on top of a rocket designed to violently explode in mid-air..." "Oh boy, was it glorious. It will be a tough job for this Nova rocket you kep talking about to impress me after this firework." "... with your only escape being a system that we had not tested yet?" "Hey, it worked perfectly though. You saw it by yourselves just now." "It worked- THAT's your point?" Her otherwise extreme cool, slowly diminishing through the course of this conversation, had finally depleted. "That's you excuse of stealing an extemely dangerous rocket supposed to be used for testing purposes and with no provisions whatsoever for kerbal-rated flight, and then flying it, possibly jeopardizing the program AND your head? What is wrong with you? And how will we conduct the max-Q test now?" "If it makes you feel better, Wernher himself crunched the numbers, and told me Lanky Jill was not nearly poweful enough for flying at max-Q before the solids were depleted. He was the one who gave it to me, in fact, for "refurbishing and/or part recycling" purposes." "But... I ... Wernher wouldn't... oh my Kerm he would... but... I don't. It shouldn't. What." "I would simply give up if I was you" said Bob, giving her a pat on the back. "I agree" added Bill, sighing in the proccess. "Me and Bob have gave up a long time as regards Jeb's antics. Okay, Rendurf, go back to the VAB and cancel A-002. It seems we got all the data we needed from this launch anyway. Say the launcher was refurbished for future projects; noone outside this bunkershould hear a word of your boss' "initiative". Afterwards, I trust the Cronus IB launcher is prepared? We'll be launching AS-201 in three days." ******************************************************************************* Next Chapter: The first Saturn/Cronus IB launch!

Up to this point, I have found only one flaw; you can no longer connect struts, something which I know is possible because KAS offered that feature. Why that?

Yeah, it's beautiful. Now as regards your free return trajectories, it may be this way because you are coming in prograde to (from the back of) the Mun, which adds Velocity to your craft and makes your periapsis higher -which, because of your parking orbit, is already outside of the atmosphere. Norcal is coming in retrograde to (from the front of) the Mun, which retracts Velocity and if properly made, gives you a free ticket to Kerbin. This is the standard, figure-8 approach used during the Apollo Program. I do believe you already know this, but it may educate others who pass through.

Yeah, I totally agree with the throttling mechanic -or lack thereof -of RTGs. But seeing as all mounted RTGs start working from launch and never stop, Mission time is to heavily dependent on the number and type of RTGS mounted. A way to disable and reenable RTGs, or to store unused ones, or get the capability to be refueled (which is not worth it in Earth, as you mentioned, but might be useful in deep space -9-), will give them much more capabilities. Will, if it's not possible, I can get myself a workaround ;store unused RTGs in KIS containers, and possibly leave spent cartridges floating in space.

Finally, I got some time to work on my project! Little Joe II and Saturn IB flights coming up soon. Saturn V will take a tad longer, as it still requires some more refining and testing. BTW, does it matter too much if the base of the rocket is even wider than the pseudo 5m stage to accommodate the Rhinos? Also, how many ALSEP experiments do I have to land, and do they have to be landed at the same time? I want to land the LRV and the LLES with Apollo XO, but that only leaves me room for the Laser Ranging Retroreflector.

Geez guys, I just meant whether there was a 5m container of something,for orbital construction.

Yes, yes, I was embarrassed enough to notice a few moments after I posted. I was too bored to edit, though. Oh, and a question; are there (or are they scheduled to be) containers large enough for 3.75m tanks? :-P

More powerful than a S-IC stage? Yeah, it does go to the other side of the spectrum. So most likely no. (but the nozzles look so cool and NASAy. Hnnnng...) I did originally have a plan to use Skippers instead, and the Twin Boar nozzles are the same size anyways. But the thing is this is already my S-IVB stage engine , and I don't want to use the same engine for both the H-1s and J-2s.

Whow, that's genius! But now I'm not too willing to use it, for I will be stealing the concept at this point

Naah, the LFBs won't work. I will not be able to get the correct H-1 placement this way. And did I just hear that KW Rocketry Bonus points got removed? Damn, back to the drawing board. Is okay, though, it truly is more creative when you replicate 5m parts with stock.

I don't see why a ripoff of KAS would get so much populoh my God you can actually have your Kerbals build whole ROCKETS?!?! *presses the download button 9001 times *

Interesting... Even though you can never have enough realism in your game, I would like to know - how can you preserve power in long periods of time? Lets say, for example, that I want to make an Urlum excursion, a trip that can take decades and has minimal access to solar power. Seeing that there is no way to throttle the RTG, or refuel it in any way (maybe worth a specialized part?), how am I supposed to provide charge -apart from getting a dozen or so RTGs and hope that each will compensate for the half life of the other.

Well, after Jonboy's amazing accomplishment (tip of the hat to you sir. I will try to replicate your achievements at a point, especially since they are actual AAP thought missions), I feel like a noob for asking. But did anyone else have technical difficulties with the S-IB stag? Both with stock and later with KW, I had to slash fuel across the board to get a SLT of 1 with my cluster of 8 1.25m engines. The next step now for possible upscale is either to add more engines (which I'm not a fan of) or part clip to squeeze 8 2.5m nozzles under the assembly (which I'm okay with, but seeing as even the weakest 2.5m KW engine has comparable throst to the 3.75m ones, the whole Assembly maaaay have the exact opposite problem at the end of the day)

Up to 0.90, this mod used to make my KSP many times faster. Like, MANY times. Now, all I get is blank textures on all of my other mods.

Damniiiiiiiiit, why does it not work? All th e.json files are there, the installation is complete, and everything looks okay up to the point where I hear no voices! I'm terribly sorry about my tantrum, but this is happening since 0.23.5 (when I found the mod for the first time) and I still haven't found a way to solve it.

Could I propose some other bonus point achievements? Use KAS (For KAS users) assemble the Moon Buggy, the ALSEP and the LESS on the Munar surface Use EngineIgnitor (possibly? I'm not sure if the S-IVB will still be restartable) Use Remote Tech, and make sure at least one antenna is always deployed After the normal landings, land one mission with Earth Orbi. Rendevous and one with Direct Ascent

Jonboy, that's awesome! An excellent replication if the Apollo Program indeed - and yet so Kerbal on its style! Well, I am currently encountering two problems. First, I can't remember how to take screenshots :-P And secondly, I'm not sure how to establish even fuel flow between clipped fuel tanks (the past clipping is for aesthetic purposes, really!)

Well, my Saturn IB test launches look promising... At first, I was afraid that I would have to change the engines (There was simply no way the first stage's LV-T30 array would give enough Delta -v to lift the whole Lunar assembly) until I actually read the wiki and found out that it could only lift either the LM or the PARTIALLY FILLED CSM. Whew, was that a relief.

I don't see why the ability to process one science experiment in multiple labs is broken. It is the equivalent of taking multiples of the same experiment and having multiple labs process each, only sans the frustration of having to get the same experiment over and over again. Plus, do you think RL research is conducted only on one research facility at a time? In contrast, the results of one lean are being moved to another for further analysis, and so on.

Nice one, Gregrox. There is a small thing that bugs me withe the stock parts, though ; a proper Apollo landing requires two kerbonauts to land, but the 1-man capsule resembles the proper Landing Module capsule much more closely. I know it's no biggie, but aesthetics matter a lot for me ; if we're going Apollo 11 style, we're doing it properly dammit! I would suggest alllowing the ALCOR capsule, but that beast is wayyyyy over Apollo -program technologies Also, maybe you want to make your stock parts only rewards a bit more flexible. If you don't want to add a bonus for the gorgeous KW Rocketry parts (you can't get any closer to Saturn LVs than that unless using a dedicated Apollo Program mod), you should at least add bonuses for TAC-LS users (it would help to better replicate Apollo 13 too) or CAS users (DYI LESS strapped on the side of the Lunar Module anyone?)

More to the point, if you lose control because of electric charge deprivation, try using engines with alternators ; they produce electricity while firing. Of course, if Control is lost while coasting to apoapsis, this point is moot, and you have to simply add solar panels/more batteries. If Control is lost while in the atmoshpere, it may be due to atmospheric drag; an octagonal 0.675m core sitting smack on top of a round -sided 1.25m tank is not the most streamlined design. Try hiding the core in a Service Bay (where you can also how some Batteries) , in the top of which you can slap a nose cone, and voila! Fairings are generally not worth it for simple sats. You might also consider adding steerable fins (av symmetry of three is the minimum amount). The control authority those buggers provide is tremendous, but rely upon then too must and you will be immobile where the air don't blow (in a vacuum) So yeah, the dust Akron is to add a reaction wheel, but if you can avoid using, you will save the around 100kg it adds ;and the smaller the rocket is, the more changes to the payload matter.

If you lack the tech for the CLAW, you can always try to create a custom catcher out of Girders. I don't is aerodynamic properties, though, and you'll have to be careful with your time war. But it may be worth it if you are close to the deadline.

We do know for a fact that mods make this entirely possible (even the balanced ones, not unit the OP ones) , but I guess this hardly tells us anything right now. As for stock, well, it's gonna take a while until all the calculations are redone. But I know for a fact by now that there is no such thing as impossible when the KSP community puts its hardest into it

Damn, so many posts popped out of nowhere... Well, there are quite some syntax mistakes that would make it a bit more professional -looking if they were gone. Secondly, seeing that your willing to give some detailed information about the reactors, maybe you should go in detail for the other important features of the mod (preferably in spoilers). And well, some other bits and pieces that In not fully sure how to implement yet. I would be happy to make them myself, but I am about to get deprived of pretty much all of this week's free time stydying for the finals' Ancient Greek exam (Biology is gonna be a PITA, too, being in a bare two -day interval from my Ancient Greek) But maybe I could work on it after Thursday and PM it to you?

Good job, man. This mod really deserves to keep going, and knowing that someone is actually trying to maintain it really makes me happy. However, I can't help but notice that the OP presentation could site use some work. Would you mind if I remade it a bit?